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Darling Winston book launch 20 September at The London Library

The UK cover of Darling Winston

Intense relationship

Publishers Head of Zeus and author David Lough will mark the publication of Darling Winston: Forty years of letters between Winston Churchill and his mother at a launch party in the London Library on the evening of Thursday 20 September.

This is the first time that the letters between Lady Randolph Churchill – born Jennie Jerome in America – and her son Winston appear as a correspondence. Mother and son wrote to each other more than 1000 times over the course of forty years; David has found nearly 800 of the letters and uses about 450 in his selection – about a fifth are published for the first time.

Strings pulled for Winston

‘Jennie’s influence on Winston’s upbringing and on his early career – in the army, politics and books – has been under-estimated,’ says editor David Lough. ‘She pulled lots of strings among her many contacts to help get him going – for most of her life, she was much better known than he was. The idea that this relationship was a distant one is put to bed by these letters – it was usually intense for a mother-son relationship for several years. Then it changed after Jennie remarried a man of Winston’s own age – a big shock. When that marriage went wrong, Jennie needed help from Winston rather than the other way round.’

Both gifted writers

‘It is a universal story of the cycle of motherhood – but with the customary extra Churchillian twist! They are both wonderful letter-writers – the letters sparkle while telling us much about the gilded age in which they lived.’

Randolph Churchill, great-grandson of Winston, provides a foreword.

Published by Head of Zeus in the UK and  as My Darling Winston by Pegasus in the US and Canada (on 3 October). Copies in the UK can be pre-ordered at the publication price of £30 (plus the author’s signature) on http://www.davidlough/uk.